Russia Invades Ukraine. Again
POSTED BY: captaincrunch
UPDATED: Sunday, September 6, 2026 21:09
VIEWED: 562266
PAGE 275 of 1104
Quote:Trump said he had not colluded with Russia. So did the Mueller Report, which said, instead, that Russia had interfered with the 2016 election. Mueller also said that Trump had obstructed justice but Mueller can't say the words "Trump obstructed" because, you know, there was a DOJ memo that says Mueller can't make that accusation about the President, but Trump did obstruct.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
So, SECOND, are you giving up on the accusations that Trump is a megalomaniacal racist and rapist, who colluded* with Russia to weaken America, and who fomented an insurrection* on Jan6. He's no longer a Constitution destroyer who's very existence threatens the liberty of the United States? He didn't offer a "quid pro quo" to Ukraine? Given up on all your other accusations?
It's all about TAXES?
Dood, every wealthy person that I can name doesn't pay taxes. Buffet, Gates, Zuckerberg, Bezos, Brandon, Musk, Carlos "Slim", the Clintons... Every very wealthy person around the world doesn't pay taxes.
Now, can we get back to the topic?
Mueller finds no collusion with Russia, leaves obstruction question open
https://www.americanbar.org/news/abanews/aba-news-archives/2019/03/mue
ller-concludes-investigation/
Quote:It is very simple, Signym, but you don't understand. I have NEVER known any Trumptard able to understand what is wrong with what Trump did. (Or understand why things go wrong in a Trumptard's life. Trumptards are oblivious to all the flashing red warning signs in life telling them to stop, turn around, go back. ) From that, the Trumptards conclude nothing is wrong, but what a lawyer would conclude is that Trumptards don't know the difference between right and wrong, no more than Putin knows he has done wrong.
The special counsel found that Russia did interfere with the election, but “did not find that the Trump campaign, or anyone associated with it, conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in these efforts, despite multiple efforts from Russian-affiliated individuals to assist the Trump campaign.”
As far as obstruction, the Mueller report laid out facts on both sides but did not reach a conclusion. Barr’s letter said that “the Special Counsel states that ‘while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.’”
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Awwww... Don't want to keep up our conversation anymore?
Looks like I win again. Just like I always do.
You're lucky Sigs bailed you out.
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Growing up in a Republic was nice... Shame we couldn't keep it.
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Putin Is Stuck With a Ukrainian War That Is Bleeding His Country
By Matt Kelly, mkelly@virginia.edu
January 25, 2023
Q. Can Ukraine maintain Western support?
A. The theory among the Ukrainians, along with ardent supporters in the U.S., is that the technological advantages of Western-supplied military will be enough to break the Russian army.
There are many in the U.S. who aren’t sure about that proposition, but they’re willing to keep supplying because it’s a very effective way to bleed down the Russian army and take care of one of our greatest strategic threats in the world. As long as Ukraine believes that it can drive the Russians back, and as long as the U.S. and Western allies are willing to supply them, we may see continued attrition on the Russian side.
Russia’s technology has proved far more inferior to what the West expected at the beginning. Russia has resupplied with help from North Korea and Iran, but we’ve seen the limits of those weapons to make a difference on the battlefield. And those weapon systems are largely aimed at Ukraine’s civilian population, as opposed to Ukraine’s Western-supplied forces. Russia is not driving back Ukraine anywhere Ukraine is choosing to fight hard. The U.S. is continuing to arm Ukraine because it believes Ukraine has the ability to drive the Russians back.
Q. What does this mean for Putin inside the Kremlin?
A. No one knows for sure. In Russia, the four most important cabinet agencies are, in order, the secret police, the militaries, the extra-political mercenary military forces that operate with the approval of the Russian government, and the oil industry. As long as Putin controls the secret police, he will be fine. But once they feel they are losing control of the situation, things could get bad for Putin.
The military is internally divided. Most military commanders, all the way to the top, did not know they were going to invade Ukraine the day before the invasion. The secret police knew. The secret police have special forces that conduct semi-military operations, such as trying to overthrow the Ukrainian government. They didn’t have adequate support and planning from the Russian military and failed.
The Russian military lacks discipline, technology, strategy and the real trust of the Russian leadership. The military is internally divided over tactics, if not strategy. And it lives in fear of both the secret police and Putin. But it doesn’t have the operational capabilities to win the war. The only thing it can do is throw more bodies at the problem. Then add the militia groups that operate independently and are trying to prove their worth to Putin and the secret police as a way of elevating their status in the Russian system.
If the Russian army collapses on the ground, then the secret police have to figure out how to defend the Russian border. The U.S. will restrain Ukraine from crossing the Russian border. But can the Russian secret police and what’s left of the Russian army hold Crimea? Crimea is a massive territory and heavily fortified, but Ukraine continues to claim that it wants to retake the territory. That’s what I’m looking for. I personally don’t see Putin falling before the fall of Crimea, but if for some reason Crimea were to fall, I think that could be very destabilizing. It would prove not only that the Russian army wasn’t up to the task, but also that the Russian secret police weren’t up to the task of keeping Crimea.
https://news.virginia.edu/content/putin-stuck-ukrainian-war-bleeding-h
is-country
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Putin Is Losing the War in Ukraine, But Winning the Battle at Home
by Michael Wasiura
When Vladimir Putin ordered his armies into Ukraine on February 24, 2022, it was not to preempt Kyiv's then-distant prospects of NATO accession, nor, primarily, to take his place in history alongside Peter the Great.
It was to avoid the fate of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
Both Putin and Lukashenko came to power after winning one more-or-less free-and-fair election, then both immediately set to work making sure that no one else could do the same. Despite Putin's nuclear arsenal, his Siberian gas, his veto in the U.N. Security Council, his capacity to project air power as far afield as Syria, and his cult-figure status among fringe members of the international right and left alike, the methods that the Russian and Belarusian presidents-for-life rely on for maintaining power at home are nearly identical.
In August 2020, after 26 years of dictatorial rule, Belarusians finally turned against their corrupt, Soviet-nostalgic, aging autocrat. Putin, who was appointed acting president of the Russian Federation on New Year's Eve, 1999, was desperate to prevent the Russian people from souring on their own autocrat in a similar way.
Plummeting Popularity Brings Desperation for 'Big Win'
In 2012, when Putin returned to the Kremlin's top spot following a four-year stint as Prime Minister to placeholder commander-in-chief Dmitry Medvedev, the man in control of the world's second-largest nuclear arsenal had a problem. Although he had claimed an official 64.35% of that year's vote against a handpicked field of symbolic opposition candidates, most of his constituents were already preparing for life in a Russia without Putin.
In October of that year, seven months after Putin's third election victory, the independent polling agency Levada Center began asking Russians if they would like to see their increasingly eternal head of state stay on as president past 2024, when his second pair of consecutive terms in office would come to an end.
Although his personal approval rating stood at 67%, only 34% of those surveyed hoped to see Putin ultimately serve a fifth term in the Kremlin. When the "2024" question was posed again in October 2013, the "yes" figure had slipped further, down to 33%.
Then Crimea changed everything.
In late February 2014, following the popular revolution which saw Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich flee Kyiv for refuge in Russia, Russian special forces soldiers dressed in uniforms devoid of insignia began showing up on the streets of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula. After a hastily organized referendum which was seen as free, fair, and legitimate by precisely zero OECD member states, a March 18 Kremlin signing ceremony triumphantly welcomed the "Crimean Republic" as an official member of the Russian Federation.
When Levada posed the "2024" question again that November, 58% of Russians suddenly said they wanted to see Putin remain in office past the end of his fourth overall term.
More at https://www.newsweek.com/putin-losing-war-ukraine-winning-battle-home-
1776408
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Delayed Tank Delivery to Ukraine Misses Window of Russian Vulnerability
By Michael Wasiura in Odesa, Ukraine
The tanks are on their way to Kyiv. The U.K. has pledged to supply Ukraine with 14 of its Challenger 2 main battle tanks. Reporting suggests that the U.S. will provide around 31 Abrams M1 models. And, perhaps most significantly, on Wednesday the German government announced that it will approve third-country requests to re-export German-made Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, with Berlin contributing 14 from its own arsenal.
The long-awaited German decision was celebrated in Kyiv. But while the new weapons system will eventually make a notable impact on the battlefield, Western hesitancy to approve the transfer means that the tanks will not be on the ground in time for Ukraine to use them at a moment when Russian forces are still exceptionally vulnerable.
"The Ukrainians were signaling an intention to conduct offensive operations over the winter, but the lack of Western security assistance has degraded their ability to do that," George Barros of the Institute For the Study of War told Newsweek.
This is not the first time that much-needed Western military assistance has arrived in Ukraine too late to be of maximum use.
"The successful Ukrainian counter offensives around Kharkiv in September and Kherson in November also shouldn't have started as late as they did," Barros explained. "In the case of Kherson, the Ukrainians only received the HIMARS systems in late June, and so they couldn't really begin the necessary shaping operations to degrade the bridges across the Dnipro River until July."
"An earlier provision of all the necessary military aid could have led to an earlier liberation of Kherson, but Western policy debates led to us giving Ukraine too little, and giving it too late," he added. "It's the hesitancy in some Western capitals to provide the necessary systems immediately, not the provision of the weapons themselves, which is acting to prolong this war."
It is a pattern that dates all the way back to Russia's poorly disguised "covert" invasion of the Ukrainian Donbas region in 2014. Rather than responding with lethal military aid then, Western governments were hesitant to risk provoking a Russian "escalation." The pattern has repeated itself with increased frequency since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022.
"The Russians always threaten unrealistic escalation, because that's part of how their information warfare works," Barros said. "It's designed to affect how we make our decisions, and, despite repeated experience, it still has an effect on us."
"Every time we talk about providing something new, Russia claims that this is their 'red line,'" he explained. "Then, after we eventually send Ukraine what they've been asking for, we realize that we should have sent them the aid months ago."
The drama over Germany's decision to grant third countries such as Poland permission to re-export German-made Leopard tanks is just one more episode in a story arc that has moved from Javelin anti-tank systems to HIMARS multiple rocket launchers to tanks, and which will now all but inevitably shift to ATACAMs long-range missiles and fixed-wing aircraft.
Still, even if the provision of Leopard 2 tanks would have had a greater battlefield effect if it had been announced months ago, this week's welcome news in Kyiv still falls into the category of "better late than never." As Russia reorients its domestic economy towards military production and continues to mobilize fresh manpower, Ukraine's optimal window for liberating still-occupied territory may be closing, but it has not yet closed.
"The Russians are setting conditions domestically to prepare for a long war," Barros said, "and so the sooner that Ukraine can expel Russian forces while those Russian forces are still relat
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Putin Is Stuck With a Ukrainian War That Is Bleeding His Country
And Americans are stuck with Democrats who are bleeding their country.
Quote:
Q. Can Ukraine maintain Western support?
No. Fuck Ukraine.
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Growing up in a Republic was nice... Shame we couldn't keep it.
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Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Putin Is Stuck With a Ukrainian War That Is Bleeding His Country
And Americans are stuck with Democrats who are bleeding their country.Quote:
Q. Can Ukraine maintain Western support?
No. Fuck Ukraine.
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Growing up in a Republic was nice... Shame we couldn't keep it.
Absolutely unsurprising when Trumptards act the way they do, 6ix. America is stuck with stingy Republicans who can't be trusted to pay FICA taxes, but the farsighted Democrats made it the law that those taxes would be automatically withheld from their paychecks. That makes it difficult for Republicans to cheat on it, unless their employer pays wages in cash, but they sure do whine about FICA, nevertheless. And Republicans don't pay child support unless their wages are garnished. Republicans whine about that, too. Republicans are cheapskates. And it takes the threat of being kicked out of their own house by Sheriffs to make Republicans pay their real estate taxes.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH...
More hypocritical drivel from Second that will just argue with his opposite arguments in another thread today, because he wrestles around with ideas in his head that are all mutually exclusive from each other and based purely in hypocrisy.
You're too fucking stupid to have a conversation with, bro.
Why don't you say something else really dumb to me today so I can shut your stupid ass down like I did yesterday and like I always ultimately end up doing?
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Growing up in a Republic was nice... Shame we couldn't keep it.
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Why did Russia fire an anti-ship missile at a Ukraine apartment block?
Russia blew up an apartment complex in central Ukraine last weekend, killing 40 people and injuring 80 more.
The strike was notable for its brutality, but also for the choice of weapon: an old, Soviet-style missile designed not to demolish buildings but to sink aircraft carriers.
Yuriy Ihnat, a Ukrainian military spokesman, told local media that the strike used a Kh-22 anti-ship missile. The supersonic munitions have a 2,000-pound warhead, and are designed to destroy aircraft-carrier groups at sea, Ihnat said.
Russia denied responsibility for the attack, repeating its assertion that it only strikes military targets — despite months of evidence to the contrary.
The strike is a sign that Russia is resorting to a "kitchen-sink approach," said Ian Williams, deputy director of the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, in a call with Insider.
"We're seeing everything at the moment, we're just seeing a blend, we're seeing newer missiles, older missiles ... they really just want to hit something," Williams said.
He said the Kh-22 missiles are "basically being used as terror weapons," totally removed from their actual military purpose.
The Russians are using all kinds of projectiles to "flood the Ukrainian air space with a lot of crap, kind of confusing the air defenses a little bit, and overwhelming them," Williams said.
Ukraine's air defense, bolstered by Western equipment, has so far been notably successful in blunting Russia's attacks, other experts previously told Insider. But it can't stop everything.
The attack in Dnipro was not the first time Russia used a Kh-22 in a civilian attack, and will most likely be the last, Williams said.
Short-term thinking
Williams said using an anti-ship missile like this betrayed a "short-term approach" by Russia, which is degrading its ability to fend off other threats.
He said the Kh-22 missile is among "some of best things [the Russians] have to fend off the US Navy or a NATO naval force, yet they're using them up hitting apartments and warehouses."
"It's very short-term thinking. It's almost like: 'Throw whatever we can at them right now in whatever mode you want, and we'll deal with it later,'" he said.
https://www.businessinsider.com/why-did-russia-fire-anti-ship-missile-
ukrainian-apartment-complex-2023-1
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Putin Is Going To Flip: Will Ukraine Launch An Attack On Moscow?
Ukraine Suggests Attacks Could Hit Moscow, St. Petersburg – Following Russia’s full embrace of the bombardment of civilian and energy infrastructure by missile and drone attacks, one Ukrainian presidential adviser said this week that similar attacks on Russian cities could occur in the future.
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy, said last week that the escalation of the war into Russian territory was bound to happen now.
https://www.19fortyfive.com/2023/01/putin-is-going-to-flip-will-ukrain
e-launch-an-attack-on-moscow/
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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